+1 I keep meaning to write up a patch for this but never seem to find the time.

No thanks. cake is supposed to be drop dead simple, and naming the task you want to run is much more clear.

I never know what the default Rake task is supposed to do in different projects ... mostly because it can do anything, and there isn't a strong convention.

I thought this issue was handled with bravery and insight. Rakefiles, Cakefiles... these things have nonsense names and so the notion of a default task is nonsense. In a Makefile, it is obvious that the default task is to make the software.

Makefiles can be used however you like, not just to build software, just sayin.

I, for one, do agree with adding a default task. How does the coffeescript community feel about this?